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How Adults Keep Their Bones Healthy

As children, we ran around the playground, played soccer, and rode our bikes without thinking about making our bones strong. We thought drinking milk was all we had to do for our bones. But, as adults, we need to be aware of how to keep our bones healthy in order to lead youthful, active lifestyles. “Healthy” bones mean strong bones.

The teamwork between several nutrients creates the dense living tissue called bone. Many factors contribute to strong, healthy bones: vitamins, minerals, amino acids and exercise.

Keeping bones healthy with vitamins

It’s a well-known fact that calcium is highly important to make healthy bones. To get enough calcium into your body, eat low-fat dairy products, fish and dark green leafy vegetables.

Keeping bones healthy with minerals

Because bone is about 70% mineral content, phosphorous, magnesium, silicon, zinc, and copper are important to keeping the bone matrix strong. Eat low-fat, protein-rich foods to get phosphorus, such as steak, fish, nuts, seeds, and beans. Add spinach, oysters and…..get this….dark chocolate… (yes!) to your diet for magnesium.

Keeping bones healthy with amino acids

Bone is very high in protein content. Plant-based proteins are superior–nuts, oats, and quinoa. Amino acids found in protein, such as lysine, arginine, glycine, cysteine and glutamine, are responsible for the absorption of calcium and the regeneration of bone tissue.

Did you know that the interior of a bone is made of collagen? Registered Dietitian, Holly Larson, who is also Oxford Press’s Contributing Writer says that copper and vitamin C form collagen in the matrix of the bone.

Keeping bones healthy with exercise

Lunges, jumping rope and push-ups put positive “stress” on bones, making them work against the pull of gravity. Exercises such as walking, jogging, and running also put that same type of stress on the bones to make them stronger. Weight lifting is excellent to build strong bones. By bearing more than just body-weight during weight training, the bone is made denser.

Adults need strong bones, just like when you were kids. As a grown-ups, you can keep your bones as strong as a child’s, when you were running around the playground.

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